TIE-DYE
HISTORY
When the world was in its tender infancy, going back to the era of Indus
Valley Civilization, the dyeing technique used in the ancient
city of Mohenjo-Daro
was by binding individual areas of cloth to
shield them from the dye known as "bandhani", the word orginating
from the verb bandhna
which means to tie, the word absorbed in English in the 18th century by the British Rulers as
"Bandana" to
mean a spotted
hankerchief. Tie-dyeing was most popular in South East Asia and the West known by the Malay term
"plongi",
whereas it was known as "Shibori" in Japan where the art of tie-dyeing had reached its zenith. In India the equally widely used term
"Chunari" refers more specifically to the patterns made by resist-dyed lots.
The earliest known example of tie-dyed textile apart from those in Peruvian
Paracas culture [
lst & 2nd century B.C.] were excavated from a tomb at Astana in Chinese Turkestan dating from the 4th century AD and it is
evident that the technique travelled to the Far East from India.
The 'Bandhani'
textiles have had a continuous history in India which is evideant from the recurrence
in written and visual documents at intervals over the centuries.
Fragments of Indian tie-dyed textiles were excavated from mummies at Fostat
in Egypt in the 15th century, which vividly visualizes us that the
'bandani' patterns were produced in India even then.
The tie-dyeing craft catering to the domestic market became popular for export and the British
East India Company monopolized the trade, exporting to London for auction and re-export. The
traditional tie-dyed design can be seen in many Indian miniatures as well as British
'gene'
paintings.
The processes involved in tie-dyeing in India are basically the same today as they were in olden days, the important exception being the
introduction of chemicals for dyeing & bleaching since the late 19th century. Even today, the method remains the same. The pinching of
white fabric in a small area and tightly wrapping cotton around the raised part keepsa the dye to reach the wrapped part so as to give
white circles when the wrapping is removed. Within this single method many variations are possible. The tip of the bunched cloth may be left
unbound to give a coloured center to the circle. The cloth may have
been dyed before tying, thus giving a wide variety of colored dots.In this case the sequence in which the cloth is immersed in a series of dye-baths must be carefully planned with
the lightest to be dyed first.
Today, the
modern dyes
are all synthetic whereas in ancient
days there
were all
vegetable and natural dyes. As the natural dyes are expensive than their synthetic counterparts, the latter is commonly used to be
competitive in the world market as well as to keep pace with ever changing
fashion tends. Earlier, the fabrics were marinated for several days and in contrast only few minutes are needed now for chemical dyes to take effect. The assiduous task of collecting herbal dye-plants and extracting the dyes are not mentioned anywhere in the news in the
fashion Industry and what is in vogue is that the modern dyers enthusiastically conveniently taking up tinned
colures to replace the original ancient
natural dyes.
Introduction of these modern chemical
dyes has resulted in chronic health
hazards coupled with enormous environmental degradation
through the Globe. Aware of the dangers, developed countries have started
testing of the products & dyes to identify the harmful ingredients for
humans as well as the environment. This cannot continue for ever and the consumer/end-user will start avoiding the fashion fabrics using chemical dyes and systematically start switching over to
fabrics manufactured out of
eco-friendly natural
dyes.
Fashion consciousness has turned a full circle and the time is not too far when people will givepreference and priority to our traditional techniques adopted successafully by the earlier
generations.
We at
Fashion Highlights
shall endeavour to inherit the old traditional tie-dyeing technique adopted by our forefathers from time immemorial and to popularize and preserve it for future generations.
